STAMP-A-STACK CARDS

I totally forgot to post this last night when I wrote about World Card Making Day. In observation of World Card Making Day and National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I hosted a Stamp-a-Stack on Saturday, October 6th. A portion of the event fee and orders placed on the 6th will be donated in my sister's honor to Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

I designed these four cards for the SAS, and my guests got to make two of each design. Their bonus project for this fun event was getting to make their own two-pocket bag like the one that I made for their "thank you" gift.

Thanks again, ladies, for your support of this very worthy cause! I appreciate you!

WORLD CARD MAKING DAY

Yesterday was World Card Making Day, and I celebrated with a Stamp-a-Stack! My guests made eight greeting cards, and they each got one of these two-pocket bags for attending. Since October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month, each guest (in their two-pocket bag) received two pink ribbon pencils, a pink ribbon book mark, a pink silicone bracelet, and an assortment of pink and white card stock. As a bonus project for attending my event, they also got to make one of these fun two-pocket bags!

Each bag had a shaker tag with pink ribbon confetti. The tags were created with a Sizzix die and acetate for the "window".

Thank you, ladies!! I truly enjoyed this event with you!

IT'S A POINSETTIA THIS TIME!

It's another tag punch creation, although this one didn't get to be a snowflake. When I started on this one, my plan was to make two of them, emboss them with Iridescent Ice, and use them as a snowflake just as I did on the previous card. All was going well until I started pouncing the VersaMark ink on the first one. I had dropped the ink pad, which landed upside down, so I just lifted the bottom and started pouncing it on the first flake. OMG!!!! It was a metallic gold ink pad!!!! Yikes! I tried to wipe the gold ink off the snowflake, but it was still somewhat discolored. I wasn't sure what to do with the other half of the snowflake until I remembered that one of the Wintergreen designer papers had a poinsettia design! And this half of my snowflake, all glittery and ready to go, was a perfect fit! Unfortunately, my picture neither portrays the sparkle on this card or the true colors of the paper. BTW, "Merry Christmas" is silver embossed. I was hesitant to use the silver embossing powder on that light green paper, but it actually turned out well. The rhinestone brads, in my opinion, turned out to be a perfect finishing touch on this card! I would like to have added some ribbon, but I couldn't decide where to put it.

CANDY CORN

The other night at Walmart, I bought some Halloween candy for trick-or-treaters. Chadrick tossed some candy corn in the cart. We had never tried Indian Corn, but we decided to get a bag of it, too. I saw where Chadrick had tried it tonight. Apparently, he doesn't care for the chocolatey end. ;-) He didn't seem interested in throwing away what he didn't eat, either. :-(

TIME TO LAUGH (OR CRY)

STAMP HEAVEN

A woman who was near death insisted she be buried with her stamps. As she passed away, she saw a white light and followed it until she found herself in a mystical place, surrounded by men and women who wandered about admiring all kinds of paper . . . beautiful paper on shelves stretching as far as the eye could see . . . and all the rubber stamps one could imagine. Overjoyed, the woman turned to a lady who was running her hands with pleasure over a rich and costly paper and said, "This is a wonderful place! Is it Heaven?" The lady replied, "No this is HELL. There aren't any ink pads.”

Author –Unknown

I think the moral of this story is to ask to be buried with stamps AND ink. Hee! Hee!

I've attached a sample (technique: Cuttlebug Smoosh) to this post so it won't look so boring.

TAG PUNCH SNOWFLAKE

Can you say "COOL BEANS?????" This is my very first snowflake created with Stampin' Up!'s tag punches, and I'm quite pleased with it. Although it was quite easy to make, it was somewhat tedious and time-consuming. The blue snowflake in the center was cut with a Sizzlits die, and the embossed snowflake background was created with a Cuttlebug Embossing Folder. Stampin' Up! products used to create this card are: Chocolate Chip, Soft Sky, and white Vellum card stock, Antique Brass brad, Crop-a-Dile to set the Antique Brass eyelets, white Mulberry paper, and the jumbo "Snow" wheel. Dazzling Diamonds glitter was applied to the edges of the white snowflake with 2-Way glue.

CHIPBOARD and DESIGNER PAPER

Have you ever purchased a product that you really wanted to use but, at the same time, you didn't want to use it? I'm like that with several products . . . like chipboard. The chipboard pieces are relatively easy to use. On this card, for example, I got the flower from "On Board Blossoms and Basics," but I saved the round center for something later. ;-) All I did to the flower is sponge Rose Red Craft ink on it! You can use Classic ink, but the Craft ink doesn't tend to get absorbed by the chipboard. For my flower center, I stamped an image from "Big Pieces" with So Saffron Craft ink and then embossed it with Iridescent Ice, although this picture doesn't allow you to see how it sparkles. And that gorgeous paper is from the "Cutie Pie" designer paper collection. If you look really close, you can see a couple of mess-ups. As I was putting adhesive on the back of the chipboard, I forgot that runner-type adhesive doesn't work well. Then I accidentally got too much glue from the glue stick on the chipboard. When I tried to clean it off, some of my ink came, too, so I had to sponge more ink on two spots . . . they're the dark ones . . . by the sponge-like smears. ;-) What can I say? This is a hand-crafted card--an original--mistakes and all.

I DIDN'T FORGET MY BLOG!!!

I can't believe I haven't posted to my blog in six days! Goodness! I have to admit, though, that it's been a busy week!

Believe it or not, I managed to crank out a couple of holiday cards last night and this morning with SU's "Big on Christmas" stamp set. It took me a while to convince myself that I needed this stamp set, and I'm lovin' it! I had a hard time getting a photo of this card that showed the icicles, but I hope you can see them . . . they're above the word "snow." I created the icicles with Crystal Effects, dusted with Dazzling Diamonds glitter. The stamped image was colored with markers, and the snowflakes are from "The Snowflake Spot" stamp set.

The "noel" card was actually the first one I made, and I wasn't sure how the design was going to turn out, but I knew I'd be using Chocolate Chip, Bravo Burgundy, and Blue Bayou card stock. BTW, the neutral color is Very Vanilla. It's hard to tell, but I used SU's "Weathered" background stamp on the burgundy card. The edges of the blue layer were distressed with SU's Cutter Kit (love, love, love that distressing tool). I really like this card, but it's a few steps from the look I normally go for. Doesn't it have a nice, warm appeal to it?

I have another "Big on Christmas" card that I made this morning, but I haven't been able to get a good photo just yet. I'll try to do that soon.

In the meantime, have a great weekend and don't forget to play with stamps and ink!

SOMETHING BORROWED, SOMETHING BLUE . . .

Congratulations, Cindy and Brian, who were married last night at Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens--beautiful outdoor ceremony! My sister, Renee, and I had the privilege of assisting at the rehearsal dinner on Thursday night and attended the wedding last night. We had a blast and felt that we were among our own family and friends!

Cindy gave me permission to post this card on my blog. For quite some time, I tried to think of what kind of card I wanted to make for them, but I wasn't all that thrilled with anything that came to mind . . . until I was looking at all the sweet photos on their wedding web site--they had SO MANY of them! So, I sniped a few and created a black & white photo collage. And that's when the card design just fell into place. I used a transparency sheet for the actual card. The swirl design (from "Doodle This" stamp set) was stamped and white-embossed on two corners. Aren't they a sweet couple? They're just as sweet in person as they are in pictures, and I wish them all the best!

I'M HITLER?????

WHAT FAMOUS LEADER ARE YOU?

Hmmm . . . I took this online quiz this morning, and it came back with a picture of Hitler! The irony is that before I took the quiz, I amused myself with the thought that Hitler would be involved in my results! I almost jumped out of my chair when I saw that little moustache! Take the quiz and find out with which famous leader you have something in common.
http://similarminds.com/leader.html